Bourbon County conservation district urges $40,000 county contribution to unlock state match

Daryl Donahue, speaking on behalf of the Bourbon County Conservation District and the Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, asked county officials to continue funding the district’s operations and described how state and federal partnerships amplify local dollars.

"The main thing we want to remember is that conservation is voluntary," Donahue said, noting the district provides "free technical assistance and access to state cost share funds" and partners with agencies including the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Kansas Department of Agriculture.

Donahue told commissioners the district was formed in 1945 in Bourbon County and has evolved from dust‑bowl era soil work to broader soil‑health, water quality and education efforts. He highlighted Cedar Creek Lake as a local asset that helped the county through recent dry years.

The district requested a $40,000 appropriation from the county. Donahue and a board member, Ronnie Brown, explained how the state match works: counties that fund their districts can receive a 2:1 state match, but the state match is capped at $50,000. "If we get fully funded by our county commissioners, we will get that $50,000 match," Donahue said.

Brown, a longtime district board member, emphasized the practical value of local projects and the district’s volunteer structure. "I don't know of anything more important than water," Brown said, recounting the district’s role in seeking funding and building Cedar Creek Lake in the 1990s and saying that without the lake the county “would have been short of water.”

Donahue presented program and revenue figures the district associates with a fully funded county contribution. He reported state allocations to district programs — a state water‑resources cost‑share figure of about $44,000 and nonpoint source pollution control funds around $14,001.88 — and said those state dollars combine with federal and program payments (including EQIP and CRP) to produce an estimated $395,001.99 in conservation assistance and partnership payments tied to the district’s work. Using those figures, Donahue said, the district calculates roughly a $9.88 return in outside funds for every county dollar.

District speakers also described three accounts the district maintains: an operations account for payroll and insurance; an enterprise account for equipment rental and seed sales (including a capital outlay subaccount reserved for a new drill); and a special‑levy account established in the 1970s for specific erosion projects. They said the district is researching rules and original deposits tied to the special‑levy account before authorizing any transfers or expenditures from it.

Commissioners asked for clarity on the exact formula for the state match and for documentation that would show the district’s broader economic impact and how state and federal payments flow into local economies. Donahue said the Division of Conservation and the State Conservation Commission set match rules and that the KACD and SCC lobbied to raise the cap to $50,000; he offered to follow up with details about the match calculation.

The district leaders repeatedly stressed that participation in conservation programs is voluntary for landowners and that district services are intended to keep money and work in the county by contracting locally for practices.

The presentation closed with commissioners and staff asking the district to provide the written documentation and spreadsheets Donahue referenced so the commission could review the matching formula and the economic return calculation before taking a budget action.

Donahue and Brown said they would return with the requested materials and further detail on the special‑levy account and state match math.